The present invention relates generally to information delivery systems and, particularly, to a novel, WWW/Internet-based, real-time telecommunications network traffic monitoring service for customers of a telecommunications service provider.
Currently, large telecommunications inter-exchange carrier enterprises such as ATandT, Sprint, MCI, etc., provide management and performance information relating to telecommunications, e.g., toll-free, networks. Such network management information generally includes details of network use and performance such as, for instance, real time status and alarm information, near real time performance data, traffic and usage statistics, etc. While this data may be available xe2x80x9con-line,xe2x80x9d they are typically communicated over dedicated network lines to a customer""s location employing a dedicated computing platform, e.g., Unix operating system, and, in some cases, employing dumb terminals having a user interface. Often these systems require deployment of proprietary software, and, in some instances, the inter-exchange carrier enterprise requires customer""s to purchase network monitoring hardware, which can be a very expensive proposition. Moreover, current network monitoring systems are limited in the types of services available for customers.
It would be highly desirable to provide a Web-based client-server application implementing a real-time monitoring function with the capability of communicating real-time network performance and statistical information relating to usage of their telecommunications network over the Internet to a client workstation having a Web browser.
The present invention is directed to a novel Intranet/Internet/Web-based monitoring system that enables a customer of a telecommunications service provider to request and view, in real-time, telecommunication network traffic and statistical data pertaining to that customer""s inbound, toll free, and outbound telecommunications network traffic. Such a Intranet/Internet/Web-based monitoring system is a client-server application including: a client browser application located at a client workstation for enabling interactive Web based communications between a customer and the monitoring system; at least one secure server for managing client sessions over the Internet via one or more secure connections; a device for generating statistical data based on real-time call data obtained from a telecommunications network, the statistical data being generated according to a pre-defined user profile; and, a mechanism for periodically retrieving the statistical data according to the user profile and for integrating the retrieved statistical data within a Web based communication, e.g., Web-page, for presentation to the user over a secure connection at pre-defined intervals. The Web page is continuously updated to include the latest generated statistical data each interval.
The user profile comprises a specification of the telecommunications network phone numbers for which statistical data is to be generated, a polling interval specification, and the types of statistics to be generated per phone number. This profile is generated at the customer workstation via the integrated interface and communicated over the secure socket connection to the retrieving mechanism.